SAILORS IN COURT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1939, Page 5

SAILORS IN COURT

MEN OF NAPIER STAR PROSECUTED DISOBEDIENCE TO LAWFUL , COMMANDS. SENTENCES OF IMPRISONMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, August 3. Forty-tw ( o seamen, members of the crew of the Napier Star, appeared at the Eastham Police Court on charges of failing to obey lawful commands, combining to disobey lawful commands and combining to impede the progress of the ship from Port Elizabeth on May 1, while on a voyage to New Zealand. Mr Glenn Craske, prosecuting on behalf of the Blue Star Line, said the men's actions were little short of mutiny. All walked of! because they wanted different food, which was tantamount to holding the ship to ransom. A quartermaster complained, on behalf of the men. that the Lancashire hotpot served at tea time on May 1 was: “Unfit for a dog," but the Chief Steward's opinion was that it was good. An identical dish was served to officers and passengers before and after the crew’s complaint. The men remained ashore for four hours, and they returned after the captain had promised not to prosecute for what one man who walked oil described as open mutiny. The owners subsequently decided to prosecute. Counsel for the defence said some of the men were ill in consequence of the food supplied. The hotpot consisted of: “stinking meal, bad green potatoes, and other commodities, making it unfit Io eat.”

All the men were found guilty of disobeying commands. Five of the crew under 20 years of age. were bound over for a year and the rest were sentenced to six weeks' hard labour.